Day 1

You’ll be outdoors for long stretches of the day, so start it off with a hearty breakfast. The morning spread at the Conrad Centennial– renovated earlier this year, adding natural jute-fibre window coverings and eggshell-effect walls in the crisp rooms – is impressive and includes many local favourites such as rice congee and prawn noodles.

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com

Suitably stuffed, take a 40-minute cab ride to the northwest of the island, a fertile paradise populated by parklands and farms. The 202ha Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve is Singapore’s first ASEAN Heritage Park and features vast biodiversity in its wetlands and mangrove forest, which are home to plenty of mudskippers, water snakes, kingfishers, monitor lizards and otters. The park is also a seasonal migratory stop, when plovers and sandpipers swing by the Little Red Dot.

A 10-minute drive brings you to Bollywood Veggies, a four-hectare farm with vegetables, edible plants and fruits, including more than 20 banana varieties. Stay for lunch at the farm’s Poison Ivy Bistro, where chefs whip up homemade laksa, Peranakan desserts, banana bread and fresh fig tea.

Nearby, Hay Dairies has more than 800 goats that are fed a non-GMO hay diet. The bleaters produce milk for local consumption. While visitors can’t milk the goats, they do have the rare opportunity to feed the sweet-eyed animals.

The nearby Kranji Countryside Farmers’ Market is held every three months, with the next one planned for December. Check their website for details of the event, which is a trove of fruit, vegetables, herbs and moreish local food products.

Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle

Then head south to the Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle where visitors can enter the oldest surviving dragon kiln in Singapore (it’s fired up a few times a year, the next being 1 December). The studio stages pottery workshops and has a retail shop with imported Peranakan dishes and celadon ware, plus local crafts.

Open Farm Community

After a long day in and around nature, celebrate the earth’s bounty with dinner at Open Farm Community, where dishes might include prawn pappardelle with a laksa reduction or braised beef cheek with rendang spice and sweet potato leaves.